The present invention is generally related to lightning detection for structures susceptible to lightning strikes, and more particularly, to a system and lightning detection techniques that may be configured to estimate a condition of the structure due to a lightning strike.
Various structures, such as wind turbines, aircrafts, marine structures, tall structures, etc., may be exposed to lightning strikes. For example, wind turbine blades have become increasingly susceptible to lightning strikes, as the dimensions of the wind turbine blades have increased. The condition of a wind turbine blade exposed to a lightning strike can be adversely affected. This can result in reduced productivity since a relatively long period of down-time may be needed to inspect and then repair and/or replace an affected blade or component.
It is known that various types of lightning detection systems have been proposed to locally detect a lightning strike affecting a given structure. The basic approach is to install such a system onboard a given structure to gain sufficient information to estimate a condition of the structure due to the lightning strike. That is, such systems tend to be technically complex and thus costly since they must be built with a sufficiently high-degree of technical sophistication to ensure that the information needed to estimate the condition of the structure is accurately and reliably obtained to reduce the occurrence of incorrect estimates of the condition of the structure due to the lightning strike and the electromagnetic interference associated to it.
In view of the foregoing considerations, there is a need to provide an improved lightning detection system and/or techniques that may be conducive to simplifying the technical complexity of the lightning detection equipment onboard the structure and thus alleviate the relatively high-costs generally associated with such complex systems. This need should be met without compromising the accuracy and reliability of the information used to estimate the condition of the structure due to the lightning strike and its associated electromagnetic effects.